Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1887-10-26
WHOLE NO. 1858.
EMBARKING THE MAILS.
SCENES ON AN OCEAN STEAMER
AT QUEENSTOWN.

q Peep at the steerage PassoDrer,-As
the Tender Draws Acknowledgement
Beauty Of Irish Children-COunting the
Mail Sags-Outward Bound.
lie must be a very unimDressionahIa
person whose interest is not reused by the
scene on an American mail steamer on the
DAY after she leaves LiyerpoOl. az she
steams along the Irish coast in the bright
sunlight Of breezy morning. The yarv-
ing forms and cOlOrs of headland and
shore would alone be worthy of notice.
DuI the curious mass of humanity gath
ered on the great ship is perhaps more in
CeresIlng. And it must be admitted that
the saloon passengers, taken as a whole.
nave TO the observer less of interest oDd
character than the miscellaneous throDo,
who collect in the less favored quarters of
Uhe snip. There is n mOnOtonous apDear-
ahce Oh comfort and prosperity about the
saloon paSsengers-each with his Drivate
chalr-which renders them a little dull.
But every step among the steeraye pas
sehgers gives rise to guess or a refec-
IIoh; Here Is n sturdy fellow from a
1orKshlre iron works on his way to the
STATES 10 seek for employment. Close by
Tall, raw boned, with a couple of children
and a weary wife. The whole family have
an air OF dependency about them which
does not augur well for their future.
couple OF Italian masOns are laughing and
joking with very light hearts indeed; and
so one by one, each differing from the
OIner-sad or glad, hopeful or respondent,
luII OF confidence in the future or feeling
mat across the ocean life cannot be harder
than at hOme-the miscellaneous thron0
moves about the ship.
MOVEMENT AND BUsTLE.
But the white buildings on Rocbe,s
point cleaning in the sunlight tell that
the vessel is nearing Queenstown, and a
1eehhg OF movement and hustle comes over
passengers and crew. There is talk az a
run ashore; there is an eagerness To see
the last British port, a haste to post the
last letters to friends in England. The
snip slowly steams up the harbOr. past the
heights Of Carlisle fort, and on as If she
We're bound straight to the white terraces
OF Queenstown. Gradually she ceases to
make Roadway, and comes to a standstil
between the little village of Whitegates
and the bleak sides of Spike island. The
tender is approaching; but already boats
iull Oh untidy girls, selling apples and with
have surrounded the ship As the tender
draws alongside it is evident that the mails
have not arrived; there are only piles of
luggage and crowd Of passengers. Some
are English or Americans who have
crossed through Ireland to shorten the
voyage by some sixteen hours, or to visit
Killarney; most are emigrants from Ire
land Soon the thrOng of Irish pours over
the gangway-a widowed father carving
his infant, followed by half dozen brown
eyed gentle looking children; a stalwart
youth with comedy sister; hard wien
faced old farmer in a coat of frieze down
to his heels, with his wife.
Nothing is more striking than the fresh
beauty of the Irish children and the
withered hardness of the middle aged and
elderly men and women. Most of them
carry their worldly goods in q bag or a
handkerchief. Their heaps of bedding.
with the tin utensils for the voyage fas-
tened to them, are pitched one after an
other the deck, while the owners vainlv
try to i:ush past the line Of seamen to
secure their property. 1t would be a sad
sight, this hurrying Of these people from
their homes, if one could forget the
squalid misery from which they are escap-
ing. But the tender has been emptied.
and is off again for the-shore to meet the
mails. The train has just drawn up, and
soon files Of pOrters, like a line of ants.
are putting the sacks on board, and the
tender is prepared to make her second
trip.
COUNTING THE AAILBAGs
This time she has scarcely any other
burden but the mails; and so, when she
comes alongside Of the steamer, a dozen
OF the crew are very soon at work piling
them on the deck of the ship. An officer
counts the bags as they come on board
Zone, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
nine, ten, tally" So they go over the
gangway by tens. They took up a great
part Of the space on the tender, and they
make n huge pile on the steamer; some
300 sacks of letters and papers make it
possible to realize the vast correspondence
of the present day. But for some time
the great ship has been slowly moving
seward with the tug attached to her
amidships, and the line Of seamen hurry
ing, each with his sack, across the gang
way. The long dark sides of the mail
steamer, and her lofty upper deck, quite
dwarf the tender; the captain looking
down from his bridge seems far aloft.
The ratings are lined with hundreds Of
faces-there are fully thousand passen-
gers on the ship-watching the mails
come on board. Every one except the
regular passengers between New York
and Liverpool, of whom there are always
several on board, look a little anxious.
Most of the poorer men and women are
sad.
1t is a curious spectacle to stand on the
bridge of the tender and look along the
sides of the ship at the great vessel and
the varying faces on her. But the last
bag is on board, the bell on the steamer is
sharply struck and few friends of the
passengers, a newspaper boy, and some
other miscellaneous persons hurry on
board the tender to go ashore. The haw-
sers are cast off and the little tug steams
ahead Of the big ship, rounds to for the
shore when she has got some lengths
ahead, and is soon, with the quick, rapid
strokes of her wheels, making for the
quay at Queenstown. The great steamer
steals away to the sea with a kind of ire
sistible and almost imperceptible motion.
The passengers forms soon become invisi-
BILE, and the big, black hull and high
masts gradually grow less distinct as ''the
liner" passes away by the mouth Of the
harbOr, heading for the west. As the ten
deI touches the quay side the mail steamer
is rounding the headland by the sea,
and in few minutes all that can be seen
from the shore is the distant line Of smoke
which tells Of her course across the At
lantic.-St James Gazette.